COMS4995 Introduction to Semantic Web, Spring 2011

Course Information
Announcements
Instructional Staff
Textbooks
Grading
Homework
Policies
Syllabus

Course Information

The Semantic Web is an evolution of the current WWW and aims to establish meaning to data such that it can be shared, automatically reasoned with, and reused via machine-readable applications. It is a collaborative effort led by the World Wide Web Consortium, with participation from a large number of researchers and industrial partners. This course will give an introduction to Semantic Web technologies and their applications. The crux of the Semantic Web is in semantic representation and reasoning of data using ontologies. Thus, we will delve into different aspects of Ontology representation, creation, design, reasoning, programming and applications throughout the course. Topics covered are the following:

Semantic Web Vision
Ontology Languages: RDF, RDFS, OWL
Ontology Design and Management using the Protege editor
Ontology Reasoning with Pellet
Ontology Querying with SPARQL
Ontology Programming with the Jena API
Current Applications of the Semantic Web

Foundations of Semantic Web Technologies
Semantic Web Programming (Recommended)
Semantic Web Primer (Recommended)

Grading

Homework 30%
Midterm 30%
Final 40%

Homework

Three homework assignments, combination of written and programming.

Policies

Cheating and plagiarism: will not be tolerated in any capacity. All work in this class is to be done on your own. Please read the department policy on academic honesty for more details.
Deadline: Homework is due 1PM (before class).
Lateness:
- Late days: You have a total of 3 late days which can be used at any time. A late day constitutes any amount of time less than or equal to 24 hours after the submission deadline.
Email: is the best way to contact me. Make sure you put [COMS4995] in the subject heading so I will notice your email.
Feedback: Send me feedback (positive or negative) on the course at any point in time and I will consider your input.

Syllabus (tentative)

Date	Lecture Slides	Assigned Reading	Homework
Jan 19	Lecture 1: Introduction	Berners-Lee, Hendler, Lassila, The Semantic Web, Scientific American, May 2001
Jan 24	Lecture 2: XML	Appendix A
Jan 26	Lecture 3: RDF	Ch 2 pp19-27
Jan 31	Lecture 4: RDF	Ch 2 pp 27-46
Feb 2	Lecture 5: RDF Schema
Feb 7	Lecture 6: RDF Schema
Feb 9	Lecture 7: OWL
Feb 14	Lecture 8: OWL
Feb 16	Lecture 9: OWL		Homework1 Out
Feb 21	Lecture 10: Ontology Engineering/Protege Editor	Protege Tutorial
Feb 23	Lecture 11: Ontology Engineering/Protege Editor
Feb 28	Lecture 12
Mar 2	Midterm Review
Mar 7	Midterm		Homework1 Due
Mar 9	Lecture 13
Mar 14	SPRING BREAK
Mar 16	SPRING BREAK
Mar 21	Lecture 14	FSWT:7.1 - 7.1.6
Mar 23	Lecture 15	FSWT: 5-5.1.2
Mar 28	Lecture 16	FSWT: 3.1-.3.2.3, 3.2.5, 5.2-5.2.1
Mar 30	Lecture 17
Apr 4	Lecture 18	FSWT: 6.1-6.3
Apr 6	Lecture 19	FSWT: 7.2-7.2.4	HW2 Out
Apr 11	Lecture 20	Semantic Web Services Survey
Apr 13	Lecture 21
Apr 18	Lecture 22
Apr 20	Lecture 23
Apr 25	Lecture 24
Apr 27	Lecture 25		HW3 out
May 2	Final Review
May 9	FINAL EXAM 1:10-4PM